(Excerpt from The Treasures of the Rosary IT is a long-es...)
Excerpt from The Treasures of the Rosary IT is a long-established custom on missions conducted by the Dominican Fathers to give each evening a short instruction on the Rosary previous to reciting the beads, which are always said in common before the night sermon. This instruction has a two-fold Object: to make known to the faithful the origin and efficacy Of this great devotion, so dear to the heart Of our immaculate Mother, and to inspire them with greater fervor, devotion and confidence in recit ing the Rosary. For many years it was the privilege Of the writer Of_ this humble book to give those Rosary talks. NO longer able to engage in mission work, some Of his esteemed friends in the priesthood have urged him to prepare a course Of Rosary talks for the press, in the belief that they would not only be useful to Directors of Rosary Societies, but would also be an aid to the faithful in meditating on the mysteries Of our Mother's cherished Rosary. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Charles Hyacinth McKenna was the eighth child in Francis and Anna (Gillespie) McKenna's family of ten. He was born in Fallalea, County Derry, Ireland. His mother was a McDonald, her grandfather having assumed the name Gillespie for reasons of prudence, since he had supported the cause of the Pretender. Her husband's death and the famine forced her in 1848 to take five of her children to her brother in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Charles, who was left with an older brother on the farm in Ireland, was tutored by a kinsman, Father John McKenna, and attended a national school until 1851, when he joined his mother. Two years in a public school, where he was ridiculed because of his brogue, corrected his speech, for which benefit he was later thankful. From 1853 to 1859 he labored as an apprentice and journeyman stone-cutter in Lancaster, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and finally in Dubuque, Iowa, near which place the McKennas had settled in an Irish rural colony. McKenna, however, never abandoned the hope of studying for the priesthood as soon as he had provided a competence for his mother. Through his zeal in parochial societies, he became a friend of Bishop Clement Smyth, who tutored him in Latin and brought his case to the attention of the Dominican provincial, Joseph A. Kelly, who sent him to the college at Sinsinawa Mound. The self-trained artisan learned rapidly, spending his spare time in the study of Latin and hagiology or in labor on the grounds.
Completing his novitiate at St. Joseph's Priory, Somerset, Ohio, he was professed as Brother Hyacinth, April 20, 1863. His course in theology was broken and hurried because of the burning of St. Joseph's and the ravages of war, but on his transfer to St. Rose's Priory, Springfield, Kentucky, he read widely and was ordained priest in Cincinnati, on October 13, 1867, by Archbishop Purcell. Returning to St. Rose's as assistant master of novices, he soon became master and sub-prior as well as pastor of the local congregation. Recognizing his latent possibilities as a preacher, his superiors ordered the young friar to the priory and church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York, where the mission band made its headquarters. As a missionary, Father McKenna gradually developed into a powerful preacher who appealed especially to the laboring class with whose problems he sympathized. Association with the noted Irish Dominican, Father Tom Burke, schooled him in the orator's devices of dramatic appeal. For forty-four years, he preached the fundamentals of Catholicism in Catholic missions throughout the land, led retreats in colleges and seminaries, gave lectures for non-Catholics, and delivered occasional addresses on Irish historical subjects. In 1886, he was worried lest he be named bishop of Providence. At various times, as a relief from overwork, he visited the shrines of Europe and the Holy Land; but finally in 1914, he was forced to retire to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington. He died in Jacksonville, Florida.
Director general (1900 - 1906) of both the Rosary Confraternity and the Men's Holy Name Society, McKenna so popularized the latter society at all his missions that he became known as its apostle. Within his order, he received a number of honors, including the appointments of prior (1878 - 81) and preacher-general of the Louisville priory (1881) and director of Eastern American missions (1880 - 92); but outside, he sought no honor, though few priests were more widely known or respected.
(Excerpt from The Treasures of the Rosary IT is a long-es...)
A Methodist neighbor, writing of Father McKenna's days at St. Vincent Ferrer's, described him as "a holy man entirely separate from the world, night and day either before the altar or among the most miserable of the living and dying", while Cardinal Gibbons considered him one of the greatest American missionaries. His special concern was Catholic societies--the Catholic Knights of America, St. Vincent Ferrer's Union in New York, of which he was a founder, the Angelic Warfare Society, and the Junior Holy Name Society.
